While discussing some of the criminals whom he employs with his loyal servant Filch, Peachum uses the idiom “plead her belly”:
FILCH. Sir, Black Moll hath sent word her Tryal comes on in the Afternoon, and she hopes you will order Matters so as to bring her off.
PEACHUM. Why, she may plead her Belly at worst; to my Knowledge she hath taken care of that Security. But as the Wench is very active and industrious, you may satisfy her that I’ll soften the Evidence.
Filch has come to announce that Black Moll, a thief, will be put to trial for her criminal activities and has requested Peachum’s assistance in court so that she won't be executed. Peachum is resistant at first, stating that “she may plead her Belly” if she is found guilty at trial and sentenced to death. Throughout much of British history, women convicted of capital crimes could not be executed if they were pregnant. As a result, many women sentenced to death would “plead their belly”—or, in other words, request a reprieve from execution on the basis of pregnancy. Often, these women would receive a lighter sentence than execution after giving birth, such as transportation to a penal colony. This legal loophole was liable to abuse, as female convicts had to prove their pregnancy in order for their plea to be accepted by the court. The Beggar’s Opera makes many references to the crafty means by which female convicts could be impregnated during their trial or imprisonment.
Speaking bitterly of Polly’s decision to marry for love rather than for money, Mrs. Peachum uses a simile and an early modern idiom that plays on the common perception at the time of cucumbers as particularly unappealing.
Our Polly is a sad Slut! nor heeds what we have taught her.
I wonder any Man alive will ever rear a Daughter!
For she must have both Hoods and Gowns, and Hoops to swell her Pride,
With Scarfs and Stays, and Gloves and Lace; and she will have Men beside;
And when she’s drest with Care and Cost, all-tempting, fine and gay,
As Men should serve a Cowcumber, she flings herself away.
Mrs. Peachum condemns her daughter’s choice in partner in no uncertain terms, accusing her of naively wasting the resources her family has dedicated to fashioning her as a promising young woman. First, she argues that it is expensive to raise a daughter, as young women demand to be dressed in the latest, costly trends, with “Hoods and Gowns, and Hoops” as well as “Scarfs and Stays, and Gloves and Lace.” Next, she argues that young women don’t properly value themselves despite this expensive attire; a daughter, she claims, “flings herself away” on any undeserving young man despite how much has been invested in her by her parents.
Here, she notes that young women treat themselves as if they have no value just as “Men should serve a Cowcumber,” (“cucumber” in contemporary English.) In the early 18th century, cucumbers were considered a low quality vegetable that held little appeal. Men in particular were thought to prefer heavier and meatier dishes. Mrs. Peachum, then, imagines young women as behaving as if they are worthless in much the same way that a man might toss a cucumber off his plate without a second thought.
